Hi.

My name's Daniela. I'm 29, live in Pittsburgh and have a foul mouth. Sarcasm is my second language. I'm fluent.

I'm having lap-band surgery on April 30th. I started the pre-op liquid diet today - I've had two Protein shakes and Water. The Protein Shakes taste like chalk, but they're less than 200 calories and greater than 15g of protein, so, uh...yum, chalk?

I'm not nervous about the surgery. I went through the "lifestyle change" classes in 2009 before my insurance crapped out and I had to postpone it. They tried to get me to do them again this time around, but I figured I had already attended them and wasn't about to do them again. My insurance denied the first authorization request, but I work in insurance. Literally, I spend 8-10 hours a day getting authorizations for other patients, so this wasn't my first time at the denial rodeo. I wrote my own grievance letter as a "level 1 member grievance" and cited their own medical policy bulletin stating that I had done my due diligence and met all of their damn criteria. I also stated that those "lifestyle change" classes were bullshit and the ones that I attended were somebody who had never had a weight problem in their life standing in front of a room full of fat people talking about diet. Yes. Because THAT'S what I want to hear. Somebody who has never in their life had food issues telling me about the food pyramid. Long story short, they approved it. I still have the letter from BCBS stating that my letter was what overturned the denial. Which made me proud, considering that's my job.

I was scheduled to be banded on January 18th, but I had to postpone it due to some unforeseen circumstances.

I'm at the point where I'm ready for the surgery to be over, honestly. I'm looking forward to being off work for two weeks. I just want what I'm calling the mulligan on my life to start.

I think the hardest thing for me is going to be no coffee for the first few weeks. They said I can have decaf, but what the hell do I want decaf coffee for? That's like cracking open a nice cold O'Douls and 'cheers-ing' the weekend. I went shopping for post-surgery stuff yesterday and compromised - I bought half-caff. I tried to buy decaf and my brain wouldn't let my hand pick the decaf off of the shelf. I bought sweet-n-low and sugar free coffee creamer. Not too sure if I can have the sugar free creamer, but I guess it's better to have it in my house if I *can* have it than to have to go to the store and buy some after the fact.

I don't quite know what else to write or how to end this, so I guess I'll end it now. Like this.

Hey! I just turned 30 and my surgery date is May 8th. I'll bet I'm just as foul and sarcastic as you are. LoL. I also had to jump through hoops with the insurance. They ultimately agreed to cover the surgery, but nothing else. Should I continue to fight for reimbursement for office visits, consultations, etc?

I'm excited to get this overwith, drop this weight and finally get a good look at my feet and my.... You know. Haha.

Good luck and keep me posted as to how everything goes.

Andy

Hi, and good luck

dionaw- Sent from my iPad using LBT

Hey! I just turned 30 and my surgery date is May 8th. I'll bet I'm just as foul and sarcastic as you are. LoL. I also had to jump through hoops with the insurance. They ultimately agreed to cover the surgery, but nothing else. Should I continue to fight for reimbursement for office visits, consultations, etc?

I'm excited to get this overwith, drop this weight and finally get a good look at my feet and my.... You know. Haha.

Good luck and keep me posted as to how everything goes.

Andy

Good luck with your surgery! Depending on your insurance, the pre-op visits/post-op visits should be covered. They need to bill with the pre-op visit code - if it's just billed as a regular office visit,you'll get assessed the copays and stuff. If you don't mind my asking, who is your coverage through?

My surgery was the 30th. I had to stay overnight an additional night and I feel like crap. The additional day I was there was because I couldn't stop throwing up to save my life (TMI, I know). I've been home a little over 12 hours now and I've slept most of the day. My friend came over and put my AC in my window and moved my TV into my bedroom, so that's nice. The times that I have been up, I've been extremely uncomfortable. I can lay on either side and on my stomach (which really is the only time I'm NOT uncomfortable) and I just managed to keep down my first dosage of the pain medication - I had a really hard time with that in the hospital. They had to give me anti-nausea medication everytime I would attempt to use the pain medication and that didn't even help. I took one of the anti-nausea pills when I got home today and I'm pretty sure it stayed with me for about 4 minutes until I started dry heaving again. My surgeon did a scan & said everything looked normal, but since I had the gastric plication in addition to the banding; the extra nausea was normal. Because they essentially folded my stomach (I like to think it's like a paper football, even thought I know it's not), the throwing up what I thought was blood was apparently normal. I haven't had any dry heaves or anything for like 6 hours now -- I'm trying to drink 3 medicine cups full of Water every hour. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck with your surgery! Let me know how the healing process goes for you!

Dani, I know you are uncomfortable, but for healing purposes you should get up and walk around a bit. Your legs, also, need the circulation to avoid clots. Take care and good luck. Karen.

Dani' date=' I know you are uncomfortable, but for healing purposes you should get up and walk around a bit. Your legs, also, need the circulation to avoid clots. Take care and good luck. Karen.[/quote']

Thanks! I am much more capable today than I was even yesterday or this morning for that matter. I'm not I'm a whole lot of pain at the moment so moving around hasn't been awful. Thanks for the good luck wishes! I appreciate it!